What is most important to you?
There are endless hotel, restaurant and shoe options out there. Fancy or basic, big corporate or small independent. Shoes with flashing lights are in the same store as high-end running shoes that only 1% of 1% of the buyers will purchase.
Everyone will stay, eat or wear those products based on what they need and the story they tell themselves. And with that, they all have different perspectives of value.
The hotel with attentive curb side valet that whisks the guest’s bags to their room offers the same core function as the $79 a night motel. A place to rest your head at night.
The restaurant is really a place for us to go and satisfy that basic human need which is a full tummy.
Shoes? Just find a pair, put ‘em on and go for a run!
However, if you’ve ever stayed in a $79 a night motel, eaten at a ‘less than ideal’ restaurant or gone for a run in $40 running shoes, you know it’s about much more than the core function. It is all the little parts along the way.
How does it feel when you walk in the door?
How did the staff make you feel?
Were you respected and listened to?
Were your requests fulfilled?
Was the room clean and the food well cooked?
After your 10 km run, how did your feet feel in those $300 running shoes?
Did they remember your name?
Your dinner order took longer than expected. How did they handle that?
Did they show up with empathy?
Did they treat you with the same amount of grace when you were leaving the hotel as when you arrived?
At the end of the day, if they are all offering the same core function, then perhaps the true value of the hotel, restaurant or shoe store is in fact all those other moving parts.
The human element is there to bridge gaps, provide predictability and create connections. The funny thing is that often, these round-edged human parts are what ultimately creates a higher net value.
Or to quote Aldo Gucci, "quality is remember long after price is forgotten."